Sharpie Tie Dye

We usually do a tie dye shirt in the summer.  We haven’t done a Sharpie one for a long time.  I couldn’t believe how long the kids worked on their shirts.  They did designs on the front, back, shoulders, EVERYWHERE, just so they could keep creating.

I loved how they weren’t messy.  Basically you put the shirt over a cup and secure it with a rubber band.  This keeps drips from soaking through the shirt.  Then you go to town with your Sharpies.  Some of the kids were very precise with their patterns and others were random.  The last step is awesome because you can see the dye spread into designs.  You use an eyedropper to drop rubbing alcohol over your design.

The Sharpie tie dye are filled with so many colors.  I put all of the shirts in the dryer to set all of the colors.

       

I should have taken pictures of all the fun designs on their backs.  The shirts turned out awesome!  The best part though, was having my sister Tanya and her family here making them with us.  :)  LOVE good conversation while working on a project!

Necklace Holder

Rebecca had a little thing in her jewelry box that she could hang necklaces on.  Needless to say, they would get all tangled in knots because there wasn’t enough room for all of them.

SO, one afternoon we went over to Lowes and picked up some pretty foam molding and hooks.  Total cost of project was around $5 with plenty left over to make more. 

It only took a few minutes to cut the foam molding and then screw the hooks in.  We used command strips to hang it up because it’s so light.

Solves Rebecca’s necklace knot problem, it was fun to make together, AND it looks pretty!

Sunday Walks

Hikes / Walks whatever you want to call it, we like to do it on Sundays. 

I was thinking about things that are part of our week that I want to remember.  On Sundays we go to church, usually bake some kind of treat, play board games and take a walk on a nearby trail.  All of these activities force us to be together interacting, and I LOVE it! 

Someone thinks she is all that!  She always brings her purse in case she finds treasures, otherwise known as ROCKS.

Someone’s glasses may be just a little too big for her face…

We take Shadow, which is always a big fight over who is going to hold the leash.

 

Hikes are awesome, especially when you find Indian toilet paper and a stick broom for the club house at home.

Love having Sundays to rest from the busyness of the week, to strengthen my family’s bonds, and to rejuvenate me spiritually!

Trek

During the winter a bunch of Nathan’s friends went on a ski weekend to Winter Park with their church group.  Nathan was jealous that our church wasn’t doing a ski trip, but instead a pioneer trek in the summer.  I told him to invite his friends, I’m sure they would want to come.  ;) 

I also told him that he would learn a lot from the trek.  I think he even enjoyed it!  Of course having a lot of cute girls on the trek did help.  I need to get pictures of their two groups to add to this post, but until then here are my boys.

 

They went to Martin’s Cove in Wyoming.  They walked and talked a lot according to Jacob.

 

Nathan loved his hat.  He didn’t even get a sunburn!  After I took these pictures he wanted to try a flip on the trampoline to see if his hat would stay on.  This is the picture I took of him doing it.  I haven’t edited the picture at all and it seems almost like he is in front of a green screen, the way the picture looks.

Anyway, so grateful for this experience for my boys.  Grateful for their leaders and the sweet spirit they felt on the trek.  It’s all of these little experiences that add up making my boys who they are.  LOVE them!

Random

I am SO behind on posts!  I haven’t posted the end of the year school things, the boys’ trek, the fun week of girls camp with all my girls, summer stuff, …  It has just been a busy summer.  The kids are always off doing things with friends.  I feel like I only have three kids at a time.  We have had company as well.  Wednesday my cousin and his family spent the night and then tonight my sister and her family get here.  :)

Kaylee made this cake from Pinterest, which is really from iheartnaptime’s blog.  We all loved it and I deem it a perfect summer dessert.  Here is the LINK to the recipe.

Speaking of Kaylee, I took this picture of her at the zoo a few weeks ago.  It is WAY overexposed, but for some reason I couldn’t bring myself to delete it.  It’s kind of a cool shot.

I have the house decked out for the Fourth of July.  The other night I whipped up this banner of burlap and flags.  It only took a half hour and I have LOVED having it hanging on the mantel.  It was yet another idea from Pinterest.  :)

Our holiday shelf, and then a huge print of Ash with BlackCat fireworks from a couple of years ago.  I hung it on the hall wall.

The garden is growing quickly and the tomatoes have lots of tomatoes loaded on them.  My mouth is watering as I type that. 

Also this past week I mowed our lot.  On the far corner there was a huge thistle blooming.  I couldn’t bring myself to mow it down, and went back that evening as the sun was setting to snap a picture of it.

We are really having a busy summer and I am determined to get caught up!

Lemonade Stand

My cute big girls set up a lemonade stand by the golf course. 

They made $30 in two hours. 

They both are quite the entrepreneurs!

Blackforest Fire

I don’t know where to even start this post.  Do I start with the woman that spent the night in the Wal Mart parking lot with six chickens in her car?  Or the young man that passed the sacrament today in a white shirt, tie and gym shorts because he had no other clothes?  Or do I start with how awesome Jimmy Johns is for giving the firefighters 400 sandwiches and then a couple days later giving out 100’s more to evacuees waiting in traffic to return to their homes?  Maybe I should start at the part that makes me cry every time, about all of our many sweet friends that have lost their homes, land, and possessions?  I guess I better start the Tuesday before last.

The Bishop had all of the youth in our church do fire mitigation around our building.  Our church house is in the middle of the forest surrounded by pine.  The youth and leaders worked for two hours raking up needles, hauling out dead wood, and just cleaning up the area.  He was inspired because the next Tuesday when the fire hit, our church building was left unharmed.  Hundreds of homes all around the building were burned to the ground.  That little X is where the church is and every red circle is a house lost.  502 homes were lost.  :(

So clean up was on Tuesday, and the next Tuesday the fire broke out in the forest.  I started getting texts and calls from people worried about us.  I kept assuring everyone that we were just fine.  The fire was over by the park.  I was a total idiot and look back wondering what on earth was I thinking!  The fire looked like this from my backyard as we were leaving … without my girls!  Yeah, I decided that Stephen and I would BOTH go pick up Nathan from soccer practice clear across town, so that we could see what was going on with the fire, AND LEAVE THE GIRLS in the fire’s path as they watched their movie.  I’m an idiot!

By this point everyone is calling.  We finally pick up Nathan.  My heart is pounding.  They close off the intersection of Woodman and Blackforest, which is the main road to get into our area.  No one can get in, and it’s two lanes of traffic evacuating out.  Trucks piled high, RV’s. boats, campers, worried looks.  I’m like FREAKING out that I can’t get in, to get my girls!  Stephen then rerouted us through little side roads and over to our neighborhood.  I was SO happy to get in, as others were so happy to have gotten out.

When we got home three different neighbors were all at our house trying to figure out what to do.  Our electricity had went out and thus our water was gone as well.  We saw the huge plumes of smoke way up overhead and worried about the wind changing direction and dropping embers on our roofs.  Our little Korean neighbor said, “I go when you go, so tell me when to go”.  I’m thinking don’t trust me,  I just left the girls here by themselves!

It’s scary when you don’t have power.  We couldn’t watch the news, we didn’t have wifi for computers, and our phones were going dead because of all the calling, texting and using the internet.  I always watch on TV during natural disasters and think, GET OUT, why are they just sitting there?!?  However, I believe that some people have no clue what is going on around them because power is usually lost in situations like this.  You can’t even see what to grab to take with you.

I found it interesting as the kids were grabbing special stuff to them how different they were.  Ash grabs her big puppet show theater, Kaylee is taking everything off of her walls, as Jacob is trying to find his new Patriarcle Blessing paper.

So many friends were SO good to us!  AND that is what I love in times like this, people stepping up serving and helping others.  Meals, shoulders to cry on, clothes (the North Stake building was FILLED with clothes for anyone that had been evacuated and needed them), helping with pets, even down to all that is given to firefighters and Care and Share.  People are giving and ready to serve! 

Today I sat in church with 82 families that are STILL evacuated from their homes, some of them having lost their homes.  General authorities were sent from Salt Lake.  They spoke of peace and blessings found in trials.  BUT it was a sister in the ward that touched me.  She talked about losing a child a few years ago.  She said, “when I finally stopped asking why me, and started living, that is when I started growing and progressing.  That is when I started seeing so many blessings in my life”.  The hymns spoke to me as well, especially “Come Follow Me”.  The spirit was strong and my eyes were overflowing.

There is so much love and service all around.  There is so much to be done.  We just need to remember to always be like this with each other.  It shouldn’t have take a fire!

Happy Father’s Day

Love special days to celebrate special people.

I was thinking about my dad and how he is there for every important event in my life.  From my birth, baptism to graduations, games, recitals, daddy daughter events, wedding, building my house, and for every important event that happens in my kids’ lives.  I’m always calling to ask his advice on everything I try to build, do, make or fix.  I even called him last Tuesday for advice on what to do with the fire approaching our house.  He doesn’t live here but I always value his advice.  He is always there for me!

So grateful for my super dad, my Father in Heaven, my sweet husband, wise father-in-law, uncles, brother-in laws, grandpas, and all the other men that have influenced me in so many ways!  Love you ALL!

A Crack

I tweaked my back AGAIN, and have been walking around with stiff shoulders.  Our family was walking into a store and one of the kids asked if I was going to be OK.  Jerrica piped up with her huge, serious eyes, “Maybe somebody stepped on a crack”.  Referring to “Don’t step on a crack or you’ll break your mother’s back”.  It just made me smile at how her little head thinks about things.

 

Flower

I love the bokeh in this picture.  I love the details that can be seen, like the little hairs on the petals.  I love the contrast in colors, especially the bright yellow. 

I just love this picture that I took on our camping trip!